IDF Unit 504, the military’s human spying version of the Mossad, has been vital in unmasking Hamas’s abuse of hospitals for a variety of terror and military purposes, The Jerusalem Post can now disclose.
This information was previously provided to a closed group of military reporters but had been kept censored due to operational considerations.
In a recording of a Unit 504 interrogation of a Palestinian who had been in Shifa Hospital, he said there were many Hamas forces there, which upset the medical staff, who knew about their presence.
The interrogated Hamas terrorist estimated that he himself alone had seen between 80-100 terrorists (likely only a portion of Hamas taking into account that Shifa is a large complex with many facilities.)
He added that Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were “camouflaged” in the dress of various kinds of medical helpers, including using the emergency room for their activities.
Another Palestinian, Hamdoah Riad Assad Samlah, told how Hamas terrorists were using 50,000 Palestinian civilians at the large Palestine Red Crescent Society building in Gaza as human shields.
He said that no one would resist Hamas or they might be killed.
Further, he added that Hamas wrapped their rockets in civilian blankets to hide them from the IDF and were frequently shooting from the nearby surroundings of the building.
Another Palestinian told Unit 504 that he saw over 100 Hamas terrorists controlling Rantisi Hospital in Gaza, split up into tents of around five to six men per tent.
He said that he was also in a hospital known as the Sweden Hospital, where he saw at least seven Hamas terrorists. Though they were in civilian garb, he said he knew one of them personally, and that the rest were armed.
Hamas terrorist interrogated by Israeli security forces describes Hamas’s use of hospitals to cover its terror activities (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
Another disclosure is that – after a hiatus dating back more than a decade – Unit 504 has reestablished a new physical center and unit to handle Gaza issues and security issues on Israel’s southern border.
This has been possible since Unit 504 has doubled its size since the Israel-Gaza war started, including with some of the most highly trained reservists in the IDF.
Until the war started on October 7, Unit 504 was focused more on Lebanon, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries.
For example, the Unit’s involvement in arranging medical and infrastructure assistance for Syrian militias on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights during the Syrian Civil War of the 2010s has been previously reported by the Post and others.
In addition, the IDF said that Unit 504 has interrogated over 500 terrorists since October 7, and arrested and questioned over 300 terrorists since the start of the Gaza counter-invasion.
Next, an IDF statement said that Unit 504 has helped flag 300 terror sites for IDF operations, with over 100 of those sites having later been attacked by various IDF forces.
Over 300 Hamas terrorists captured and taken to Israel
A senior Unit 504 commander said, “Until now, we have arrested more than 300 terrorists as part of the invasion, who were taken for extended questioning to Israel. The information which came out of questioning such prisoners has had tremendous value, led to eliminating other terrorists, and to enhancing the security of our forces.”
The senior officer added that his unit had also received thousands of calls from Gazan Palestinians wanting to help them with intelligence or otherwise cooperate against Hamas, “an order of magnitude which we had never seen before. It seems that the residents of Gaza are unhappy with the barbaric conduct of Hamas.”
In order to accomplish these many missions, dozens of Arabic-speaking field interrogators are spread throughout the battle areas in Gaza at the division, brigade, and battalion levels.
Unit 504’s field interrogation personnel are not just bringing back terrorists to Israel for questioning, but are also questioning terrorists often in the field in real-time to assist IDF forces with their immediate battle maneuvers as well as finding Hamas’s sensitive locations on nearby Gaza streets.
Besides these interrogated detainees giving Unit 504 questioners information about sensitive terror locations in general, they have been especially helpful in locating Hamas’s tunnel network, the method of operation of the enemy, and how Hamas has tried to fade into civilian locations or the civilian population, said the IDF.
Another way that Unit 504 helps the invading ground forces is by collecting critical surveillance on the wider front they are about to face.
In addition, Unit 504’s technological team developed a 360-degree virtual reality device to help soldiers see and feel what it is like in battle areas of Gaza at street level. The VR program is based on real videos taken by spies in Gaza working on behalf of Unit 504.
The mix of real-time intelligence with operational knowledge has led to a huge number of successful targeting operations as well as smarter maneuvering in the face of potential enemy ambushes.
Unit 504 has also had a lead role in convincing the vast majority of northern Gaza Palestinians to evacuate.
This has been done by a mix of over 10 million electronic messages, nine million recorded messages, and over 30,000 telephone calls from officers trained not only in Arabic, but in connecting culturally with Palestinians, but also by various psychological and social media campaigns. Also, around four million flyers were dropped pressing Palestinian civilians to flee South.
In one case, the IDF learned from Palestinian civilians about a Hamas outpost that was blocking them from evacuating and was able to use that information to remove the Hamas forces that were interfering.
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